International Journal of Hospital Research
Volume:5 Issue: 4, Autumn 2016

It was established that eating experience may affect patients emotionally. Acknowledging the role and understanding the basis of patients’ emotions in their food consumption may assist in identifying their nutritional status as well as their satisfaction with foodservice. To date, there are limited studies focusing on patients’ food-related emotional experiences. Hence the present study sought to explore the issue using a qualitative approach.
The study was conducted in three Malaysian public hospitals, two of which from rural and one from urban areas. Information about aspects of the hospital food experience was gathered using semi-structured interview method. A total of 29 patients who felt well enough to provide information about the hospital food were identified with the help of the head nurses. Patients were recruited based on the concept of data saturation. The interview was implemented based on Critical Incident Technique (CIT), which enables systematic extraction of information from the wealth of data in the stories told by the interviewees about things which have happened to them. Data were analysed using content analysis method.
Findings: Patients were found toexperience emotions including frustration, interest, enjoyment, hostility, shame, boredom, sadness, anger, surprise and satisfaction in relation to food provision. The frequency of incidents eliciting negative emotions (56.7%) was higher than that of positive incidents (43.3%). Frustration, interest, and enjoyment were the most frequently reported emotions.
Our study highlights emotion as an important aspect of patients’ food consumption, and lays a ground for incorporation of food-related emotion into hospital services and patient management research. Our study also indicated the CIT to be effective and credible in elucidating hidden patients’ emotions, which encourages its application in future relevant studies.

Emergency departments should adapt the most updated standards in order to maximize their capability in delivering urgent health services. In the present study we assessed the effect of training of triage nurses in Tehran Emergency Department on efficiency and accuracy of triage decision making.
In this quasi-experimental study, 100 nurses i with mean age of 27 years was randomized into two groups. The first group received training based on the a new triage international guideline and the second (control) group was left untrained. The ability of trained nurses in decision making and classifying the complications was compared with nurses who followed the current routine triage protocol. The categorical variables were compared by Chi-square test.
Findings: The total frequency of dispatches based on new international guideline was significantly lower than based on the routine protocol (84% vs. 46%) (P Our study provides direct evidence for the positive impact of updated training on improved performance of triage process and encourages similar interventions to achieve higher efficiency in emergency departments.

Accelerated demand for health services together with the increasing lack of skillful health human resources have highlighted the importance of organizational commitment (OC) to health system performance. Recent studies have identified psychological empowerment (PE) as a potential driver of OC. However, the relation between the two constructs is less explored in the healthcare context of Iran. Hence, this study was designed to explore the relationship between OC and EC from the viewpoint of nursing staff.
A sample of 225 nurses from the three teaching hospitals affiliated with Kashan University of Medical Sciences (Central Iran) was randomly selected to answer the research questionnaires. PE was measured by a 12-item questionnaire Meaning, Competence, Self-determination, and Impact as subscales. OC was assessed using a 15-item single factor questionnaire. Data were analyzed using Pearson’s correlation coefficient and regression analysis.
Findings: PE (r = 0.457, P Our results provided additional support for the positive impact of PE on nurses’ OC and encourage hospital administrations and health policy-maker to seek for PE promotion strategies to achieve higher human resources performance. Based on our data, strategies promoting the perceived job meaningfulness and the work importance will have the largest positive impacts.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder, which can be manifested as comorbidity with other psychological disorders. Prompt diagnosis and treatment of this comorbidity plays an important role in treatment of the main disorder. This study aimed to assess the frequency of OCD in methamphetamine-dependent individuals.
Patients and This descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted on 140 methamphetamine-dependent individuals presenting to outpatient addiction treatment centers in Tehran. The participants only had methamphetamine dependence and were not addicted to any other substance. Initial examination was carried out by a psychiatrist to rule out other conditions. To assess OCD, Persian-version of Yale-Brown questionnaire was used. The cut-off point used for the questionnaire in this study was 9. In addition to the severity of obsession, type of obsession was determined as well.
The mean age of patients was 32.2±7.8 years and the mean duration of methamphetamine dependence was 8.9 years; 26.1% were married and 72.9% were single or divorced; 27.1% had academic education. The frequency of OCD was 33% and miscellaneous and aggressive types of obsession had the highest frequency.
The observation that one third of methamphetamine dependent patients suffer from OCD suggest existence of a correlation. More detailed understanding of such correlation can enable efficient treatment and favorable prognosis of the disease. Our study, hence, encourage further investigation of the issue to draw a more definite conclusion.

Public hospitals play an important role in the delivery of essential healthcare in Australia as in many countries. The Australian Government has in the recent years implemented national healthcare reform to improve the performance of and access to public hospital services. This reform extends to all public hospitals including remote hospitals. However, there is limited information on how reform should be implemented in relation to remote hospitals. With this background, this article presents literature about national healthcare reforms, reform in Australia, hospital reform and the context in which remote hospitals operate. Based on our study, while hospital services and access to them is very important for remote population in Australia there is limited evidence to show national healthcare reforms have improved access in remote areas of Australia. Our study indicates the need for studies focusing on remote hospitals to identify the contextual issues these hospitals face and how reforms can be adapted to address their unique needs.